The B2B landscape is on the cusp of the next era in payments innovation.
As PYMNTS readers already know, this exciting new era is being driven by a continued digital transformation of historical processes and an electronic rationalization of traditional workflow problems.
With the purpose of Capture the concrete opportunities that exist for B2B companies to accelerate sustainable growth and establish differentiation in the market, embracing innovation and redoubling their efforts. Payments Improvements are more necessary than ever.
That’s why PYMNTS doesn’t take a break when it comes to tracking the latest developments that will shape the B2B landscape of tomorrow. The main themes we heard this week revolved around giving small businesses access to working capital and financial solutions they desperately need, the ongoing digitization of the B2B payments space (and the benefits it offers), the rise of intelligence artificial (AI) for B2B. , as well as some exciting fundraising and product launches.
Read more: Workflow automation and flexible financing lead B2B innovation this week
Giving credit to small businesses goes beyond just a pat on the back
Small businesses are the lifeblood of local economies, a role that also has upward implications for national and even global markets. Solving for Their needs can have far-reaching implications, which is why FinTechs and other innovators are increasingly focused on providing usable solutions for small businesses.
This, like Tuesday (April 16), finmid It emerged quietly and announced that it had raised 35 million euros ($37 million) to expand its integrated financing solution to companies from all over Europe.
In the same day, Lendica and EBizLoad teamed up to launch a integrated business credit solution for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the United States, and Quick finance was associated with Galileo Financial Technologies in a small company financing solution.
Meanwhile, PYMNTS reported Tuesday how the deadline comes closer to meeting small business data collection requirements for the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), as mandated by Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act (DFA) of 2010. The new regulatory rules of Reporting is designed to increase transparency in small business lending, as well as promote economic development and combat illegal discrimination in financial performance.
A day later, on Wednesday (April 17), the full-stack payment processor finix launched a solution that allows businesses to onboard merchants for payment acceptance in a simplified manner. The new Commercial subscription The solution also ensures that businesses stay up to date with changing regulations from governments and card networks. and sponsoring banks.
Also on Wednesday, Fixed payment increase 45 million euros ($48 million) in a Series B financing round to expand its offering of point-of-sale (POS) systems and payment solutions designed for SMBs.
Boost B2B payments with digital mechanisms
With the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta highlighting on Monday (April 15) that the Federal Reserve Banks will adopt the ISO 20022 message format for Fedwire Funds Service on March 10, modernizing B2B payments It is increasingly a priority for organizations, if it was not already one.
Modern technology makes modern trading strategies possible. After all, in a context where many companies lack modern B2B payment offerings and are overly reliant on legacy systems, providing best-in-class service. Payments Experience can often mean the difference between bills paid in a timely manner and relationships that eventually go south due to continued technical disconnection.
That’s why, as PYMNTS covered, perform a self-assessment is a key first step for companies considering undertaking a digital transformation of their accounts payable and accounts receivable functions. As for the last step? It’s a better B2B payment experience, for all parties.
Continuing to migrate the merchant payments and expense management industry to digital platforms, MasterCard announced on Thursday (April 18) that it is bringing your business cards to mobile wallets.
According Chad Wallace, global head of business solutions at Mastercard, the main use case for the app will be expense reporting and reconciliation processes for businesses and their employees. It also provides new technologies and services that financial institutions can extend to their merchant accounts. But he doesn’t expect its use to be limited to the frequent business traveler.
Read more: Digital wallets can transform B2B payments, but will they?
“We’ve had our virtual card platform for quite some time, typically for acquisition use cases,” he told PYMNTS. “And many of them are B2B transactions. They are integrated into several different industry verticals, such as online travel agencies, that can pay hotel chains and airlines, all virtually. card. “Then we started taking a closer look at some of the different use cases we could use virtual cards for.”
Digitalization is increasingly revolutionizing the B2B landscape with streamlined procurement processes and even better payment workflows.
Do not you believe it? We don’t have to look any further: the United States government, the world’s largest buyer, which is expanding its $6 billion e-commerce initiative include more online marketplaces, opening up a potentially lucrative income stream for more than 33 million small companies.
“We were thinking, just as governments have a great platform for their big contracts, what if they had a great platform for their big contracts? small procurement needs: anything that does not require bidding or purchases that agencies can make with their credit cards”, paola santanageneral director of Glasshe told PYMNTS.
Still, despite the prevalence of digital alternatives, checks remain a preferred payment method for many organizations.
PYMNTS Intelligence research underscores this trend, revealing that checks make up a significant portion of business-to-business (B2B) transactions across multiple industries. In real estate, almost 21% of B2B transactions involve checks, while retailers trust checks for 15.2% of your B2B payments.
According “How Ad Hoc Instant Payment Costs Affect Small and Medium Businesses“, an Intelligence Service and Incoming payments collaboration, the cost of system upgrades remains an impediment for companies that could benefit from them the most.
AI reaches the B2B landscape
With the news Tuesday that IntelWorking with several other industry partners, it is collaborating on a Sandbox project called Open Platform for Enterprise AI (OPEA) which aims to accelerate secure and cost-effective GenAI deployments for businesses, putting AI into action is increasingly a priority for businesses.
AND this was followed by News Wednesday (April 17) that Google CFO Ruth Porat is restructuring the tech giant’s financial team as the company looks to redeploy resources toward AI, underscoring that the impact of taking a more technology-driven approach is a priority for finance functions and the CFO. managers of large and small companies.
And for him “AI effect“Series on Thursday (April 18), PYMNTS sat down with MJJiangstrategy director at Crediblyand Ryan Rosetteco-founder and CEO of Credfully, to discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the world. SME underwriting landscape.
Riding the wave of AI, emagia on Tuesday launched an artificial intelligence platform designed to optimize B2B Payments orchestration for global companies.
The B2B market is moving
B2B credit card platform Flexible plans to expand after raising $19 million. The financing round, Announced Wednesday (April 17) was led by PayPal Companies and brings Berlin-based Pliant’s total Series A funding to more than $53 million.
Expense management platform Ramp He said that now he is a $7.6 billion companywhile going down a $150 million Series D-2 financing round, while AffiniPay has expanded availability of its payment processing solutions for lawyers and accounting professionals to Puerto Rico. Digital payments platform World first has presented a solution, world tradeto help small businesses accelerate cross-border payments.
The digital transformation of banking continues to reshape the way financial institutions meet changing consumer expectations. cFundamental to this evolution are associationsthat play a critical role in improving customer experiences and optimizing financial processes.
The question of whether it is better buy, build either couple when it comes to facilitating cross-border payments to encourage growth.
